Wyoming Game & Fish Department investigates grizzly shooting
By News Release on Sep 22, 2009 in Featured, Outdoors
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department reports that a subadult female grizzly bear was shot on Saturday, September 19th, 2009.
The bear was shot by an individual while hunting in the Ditch Creek drainage north of Jackson. The incident is currently under investigation. As many big game hunting seasons are now getting underway, Game and Fish officials are reminding hunters that much of Wyoming is bear country and that grizzly bears continue to expand their range south into areas they haven’t inhabited for decades.
These areas include the southern Teton and southern Gros Ventre Ranges and even farther south into the northern Wyoming and Wind River Ranges. At a minimum, hunters are urged to remember five basic
guidelines for preventing conflicts with bears while hunting:
● Hunt with a partner and be especially cautious while calling
game
● Carry and know how to use bear spray
● Keep a clean camp
● Pack and remove downed game as soon as possible, and
● Do not attempt to scare a bear off of a carcass it has claimed
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Dave Smith | Sep 23, 2009 | Reply
How bizzare that “carry and know how to use bear spray” is considered one of “five basic guidelines for preventing conflicts with bears while hunting.”
Carrying bear spray does not reduce the odds a stealhy hunter will accidentally provoke a charge by startling a nearby grizzly.
There’s no way a big game hunter carrying a rifle can use bear spray during a surprise encounter. No time. Attempting to switch from rifle to bear spray is unsafe.
It’s silly for the Wyoming Game & Fish Dept. to tell hunter they should “know how to use bear spray,” when hunters are not taught how to use bear spray in normal hunting situations due to firearms safety considerations.
dave smith | Sep 24, 2009 | Reply
Hunters should “Carry and know how to use bear spray.” Star Valley Independent, “Wyoming Game & Fish Department Investigates Grizzly Shooting”
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it….” Joseph Goebbels
“A lie told often enough becomes truth” Vladimir Lenin.
“There’s nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it.” William James
Ed Vandenburg | Sep 24, 2009 | Reply
I’ve found that I can draw and deploy my bear spray canister in a split second. I attended a workshop at the Hunt Expo in Casper a few years back. Game and Fish had a bear education course sat up and taught everyone how to use bear spray. I bought a can and with minimal practice was able to utilize it as a defensive tool.You can miss with a firearm, but you won’t with a cloud of bear spray.I don’t even carry a side arm anymore. Bear spray is lighter, cheaper, and proven more effective.
To each is own, I prefer bear spray, if the next guy wants to use a gun that’s fine with me.